BurgerKing, Volvo, Coke, LEGO, and ShoeDazzle were some of the brands in my recent conversations.  Peruse this recap of my content this month to see what you might have missed:

brand-building:

• What a Strong Brand Does for a Small Business — my OPEN Forum column on why small businesses should invest in brand-building from the start
• Has ShoeDazzle Lost Its Dazzle?  — a POV on ShoeDazzle’s move away from its subscription model
• Basketball Teams and Brands – a bit on what brand-builders can learn from Josh Harris’s moves to rejuvenate the 76ers

business and innovation:

• Once Upon a Company – a guest post of mine on the upMover blog about the internal power of storytelling
• Storytelling Strategies – a follow-up bit on storytelling best practices
• Could ‘Pink Slime’ Be Rebranded? – a comment from me on what “slimed” companies should do
• From Values to Action – a post relaying what I learned about values-based leadership from Kellogg professor Harry Kreamer
• Hip Help – a bit about how Help Remedies is turning drug marketing on its head
• Mary-Ann Somers on Coca-Cola’s New Ventures  — an interview about the work of Coke’s Venturing and Emerging Brands business unit

brand communications:

• Burger King Enlists Celebs to Call Attention To New Menu That McD’s Already Has — a quote of mine about how Burger King seems to be copying others, instead of leapfrogging them
• McCabe on Advertising – a bit about how Ed McCabe used an iconoclastic approach to etch into our brains Volvo’s brand identity

restaurants and retail:

• Make Your Ethnic Concept a Familiar Favorite – my latest QSR Magazine column about introducing an unfamiliar concept
• Five P’s to a Priceless CE Retail Experience – a guest post on CEA’s Digital Dialogue about how to combat the showrooming effect
• Fast Food Line-Up – a bit comparing brand perceptions and tagline recall for Burger King, Wendy’s, and Taco Bell
• Brand Experience Briefs:  video briefings of my insights and analysis of a Chipotle-inspired pizza concept, Pie-ology, and the LEGO store

Now…onward to May!

brand as business bit:  Last week, my guest post “Once Upon a Company” ran on upMover, the blog of UpMo, an employee-centric career management company.  I wrote about the power of storytelling to engage employees.  I realize that some business leaders may want to leverage internal storytelling but may not know how to do so.  Here are a few best practices:

• Story listening – You don’t only want to take a top-down approach.  The most effective story-telling approach actually combines it with story-listening and story-triggering.  In story-listening, the process includes eliciting and collecting stories from all stakeholders, helping people to draw meaning from those stories, and then creating opportunities for the stories to inspire them to take positive, transformational action.  Story-triggering involves setting the stage (through experiences, statements, etc.) for great stories to arise and then actively collecting and sharing them.
• Evolution – Stories are like strategies in that they provide direction and a framework of meaning that explains the why behind the what of a business. But they’re also like chord progressions used by jazz musicians that allow people to improvise and adapt within the progression to suit the needs of the moment.  People should be empowered to evolve the meanings and applications of stories as the company itself evolves and grows.
• Individual ownership – Stories get the most traction when people make them their own.  So instead using PowerPoint presentations and scripts to convey stories, people should be encouraged to learn and tell a story in their own words, supported by their own anecdotes.  Each telling of the story should be an individual expression of a common narrative.

brand as business bit:  The folks at UpMo, an employee-centric career management company, asked me to contribute to their blog, the upMover.   I thought it was the perfect opportunity to share about something I’ve been thinking about for awhile now:  the power of storytelling to engage employees.

Companies often use advertising and social media to share rich and compelling stories with their customers and then revert to PowerPoint presentations and strategy documents for internal communications.  But employees need to be inspired as much as – if not more than – customers.

In my post, Once Upon a Company, I convey how business leaders can use stories to convey their company’s vision, reinforce its values, and inspire connections among its people. I’d be grateful if you would take a click over to my piece and let me know what you think.

In the spirit of New York Times Magazine’s annual Year in Ideas, I’ve compiled an alphabetical digest of ideas, from A to Z, that I wrote, spoke, and passed along over the past 12 months.  The following are excerpts — the original pieces linked. 

By assembling this collection of preoccupations, provocations, and predilections, I realize how random my ramblings may seem at times – but I hope they’ve been helpful to you in some way.  So here we go:

All You Need Is Love – Love is a driver of business — when businesses are grounded in love and when leaders love the people around them, the result is growth and goodness and success and strength. (my op-ed published by the Greenville News)

Belief Repositories – “Belief repositories are fueled by hard evidence but can lead marketing teams to make investments where no experiment or marketing mix model has yet been run.” (Joel Rubinson in a guest post on my blog)

Culture Isn’t Enough — A vital, vibrant culture unifies, aligns, focuses, motivates, and propels.  But it is not enough to produce a profitable business.  Culture must be linked to, and pursued with the same rigor and vigor as, the customer experience. (blogpost)

Decrease Your Deal-Dependence with Differentiation — Differentiation is really the best way for all businesses to address consumers’ new value mindset. (my bylined article published by Franchise Update Media)

Embrace (and Enforce) an Inspiration Policy –  Clarify why inspiration is important to the company, and how people will be supported and encouraged to develop it.  (one of the top10 things i’m going to use from Andy Stefanovich’s book, “Look at More Stuff”)

Failure Is a Gift – “I think of my failures as a gift. Unless you view them that way, you won’t learn from failure, you won’t get better.” (from my three-part recap of Harvard Business Review’s Failure Issue which quoted former P&G CEO A.G. Lafley)

Grow As Slowly As You Can — Growing slowly allows you to make sure you have the right people and allows you to personally foster your culture. (learned from talk by Jason Fried, CEO of 37signals)

Health Is In the Eye of the Beholder –  Health means different things to different people — and that variation is actually good news for restaurateurs. (my bylined article published by SmartBrief for Restaurants)

Innovate Around the Person, Not the Technology — The temptation with any development in technology is to use the new capability as the starting point for innovation.  But this often leads to developments which fall short of or are off base from what end users want and need. (my guest post on CEA’s Digital Dialogue)

Just Because… “Food is served fast, doesn’t mean it has to be the typical fast food experience” – (from my recap of the reality TV show, America’s Next Great Restaurant, quoting Steve Ells, founder of Chipotle)

Kodak Tries to Bring Its Digital Revival into Focus — Kodak is not giving the consumer a reason to purchase. I don’t know that a good brand halo helps if you don’t have the ability to convert it into sales. (my POV quoted in Bloomberg Business Week)

Less Is More — “Trader Joe’s may offer customers less choice. However, in terms of ease of choosing and relevance of choice, it is definitely where less choice is more.” (C.B. Whittemore in guest post on my blog)

Modern Brand Names — Brand names reflect the business climates they’re developed in — modern brand names need to tap into the differentiating power of values and personality. (blogpost)

Not 360 Degree Marketing – “The goal shouldn’t be 360 degree marketing.  Find 10-20 degrees that give the most leverage.” (advice from Tim Maleeny, Ogilvy’s Director of Planning)

On-Stage Leadership – “Leaders are always on stage… it’s a metaphor [to explain] role modeling is the key element. They’re always in the spotlight.” (the philosophy behind Sharp Healthcare’s leadership training, as explained by Director Mark Tomaszewicz)

Progressive Brands Should Turn Their Backs on Sustainability – “Brands have a far more important – a far more exciting – role to play in helping us all move towards becoming more sustainable in our lifestyles.” (POV of Guy Champniss, Managing Director of Meltwater Consulting, as relayed in my blogpost)

Quality… of engagement is a better measure of brand strength than quantity of followers (from my piece “Leveraging ‘Like” Into Loyalty” published by Franchise Media Update)

Remarkable Retail — What makes a retail store an experience so compelling that customers will tell others about it?  Interactivity, a personal and local feel, and an editorial voice. (my e-newsletter recapping a series of Brand Experience Briefs)

Storytelling – “If you’re curating really excellent thought-provoking content, and then sparking conversations around that content, you can build that kind of equity…so that people naturally develop a relationship with you.”(recommendation from Sam Rosen, Creative Director and Co-founder of ThoughtLead)

Take a Crap – I told a CEO to “take a crap” – that is, go sit on the toilet in her restaurants — so she could see how much the details of the customer experience get overlooked.  (blogpost)

Use Your Fear – Survivors aren’t fearless.  They use fear:  they turn it into anger and focus. (one of many business leadership lessons from the book, “Deep Survival” as relayed in my presentation)

Visibility – A logo must achieve impact and contact. The former is about visibility, stating what the brand is and stands for; the latter connects the brand to the customer, making a personal, emotional connection. (my Brand New Perspectives column in QSR Magazine.)

Wallets…are becoming as unnecessary as watches.  Smart phones are easier to use, provide more functionality, and offer greater security.  (blogpost)

X…as in TEDx San Diego – spoken word artist Sekou Andrews opened this year’s event with an inspiring declaration:  ”When our ‘ready’ is ‘able,’ our will be done.” (from my slideshow recap)

You Need More Competition — More competition is a good thing because it generates increased demand, gives customers confidence, builds up infrastructure, and helps you get better. (my bylined article published by SmartBrief on Leadership)

Zappos — CEO Tony Hsieh says, “Every employee can affect your company’s brand.  Not just the front-line employees that are paid to talk to your customers.” (quoted in my speaker video)

Thank you for following, reading, re-tweeting, liking, commenting, and sharing me and my work this year!  See you in 2012 for another year of ideas!

• What are some of the different views of the value, role, and best approaches to paid, owned, and earned media?
• Why are conversation and storytelling so important in today’s media?
• How can companies use content to make people’s lives better?

These are the questions I cover in today’s inteview.  My guest is Sam Rosen, Creative Director and Co-founder of ThoughtLead, an organization whose mission is “to spread important ideas that positively impact our world through online marketing.” 

Sam began his career as an award-winning social entrepreneur, founding and leading local and national initiatives to increase funding and awareness for community service.  He then became enamored with the field, practice, and philosophy of marketing, and switched his focus to digital strategy for lifestyle, business, and personal development publishers and experts. To merge his passion for changing the world with his love of marketing, Sam founded ThoughtLead where he now he ideates and directs campaigns that help brands like Dow, IBM, and HubSpot.  You may recall I featured an analysis of one of his conferences, The Future of Marketing, earlier this year, so when I heard he was involved with a new event, The Future of Media:  Radical Integration, I asked him to join me for a conversation.

Give this interview a listen and check out Sam at www.thoughtlead.com.

other interviews:

• Marti Barletta on Marketing to PrimeTime Women
• John Gerzema on Connecting with Today’s Consumer
• Jonathan Salem Baskin on the History of Social Media

(Welcome to the second in a two-post series on how retailers manage the choice conundrum.  This is written by C. B. Whittemore, Chief Simplifier of Simple Marketing Now, a marketing communications consultancy focused on simplifying customer interactions with social media and content marketing.  The first post, REI Makes Choosing Easier, which I wrote, can be found on her blog, Flooring the Consumer — part of my regular reading repertoire along with C.B.’s Twitter gems. .)

Trader Joe’s considers itself an intensely committed product driven company. Unlike traditional grocery stores, Trader Joe’s takes product to a new level with a carefully managed product line of approximately 4,000 SKUs [vs. the more traditional and overwhelming 50,000 SKUs]. Products earn the right to be included; few items get added without a lesser performing product being eliminated. Talk about careful product curation! [see Trader Joe's - Where Values Drive The Brand]. You will find no redundant and confusing options to choose from!

What might be construed as limited product selection does not mean that Trader Joe’s is an unpleasant or boring store to shop in. Quite the contrary! The careful curation of products combined with a Zappos-like Wow!-customer-experience-commitment makes for a store that reinvents the notion of discovery, engages shoppers, instills in them confidence and enthusiasm and creates a comfortable environment for making sense of product choices and indulging in impromptu experimentation.

Humor doesn’t hurt either! Look in the Trader Joe’s Fearless Flyer – described below – for the statement “…For mental consumption only.”

Have you visited a Trader Joe’s? You won’t yet find them in every state in the US [see http://www.traderjoes.com/pdf/locations/all-llocations.pdf], but each new opening is a major event worth celebrating given how involved each store is in its community [see http://www.traderjoes.com/stores/neighborhood-involvement.asp] and how each reflects the neighborhood it lives in. Trader Joe’s takes seriously its tagline as “your neighborhood grocery store” [see Trader Joe's Neighborhood Grocery Retail Experience].

These images from the Trader Joe’s in Wayne, NJ, reflect the local William Patterson University Football Team.

Trader Joe’s relies on two primary means for communicating with customers about products:

• The monthly Trader Joe’s Fearless Flyer which you can sign up for online. It’s a 20+ page brochure filled with stories about products, about the product selection process, about the product discovery process, etc. You’ll find quotes, whimsical images, valuable information and even a ‘Handy Flyer Shopping List’ that you can cut out and take with you when you shop to remind you of what to buy… It’s also the kind of brochure that you hang onto rather than file away in the circular recycling bin.

• Radio ads where real Trader Joe’s crew members [including CEO Dan Bane!] tell real stories about Trader Joe’s products.

Once in-store, the story-telling takes place through signage

and tastings that bring featured products to life.

The crew member conducting tastings offered us generous portions [enough so you really know what it is you are trying], and didn’t begrudge a 9 year old coming back for seconds [and possibly even thirds!]. When asked, she explained that she loves her job and Trader Joe’s. For real. Wow!

There’s more product discovery to be had… If you’re willing to try something new, but want to learn more about the product, hand-written signage [a trick ‘borrowed’ from Disney] offers information relevant to a cheese-lover:

I look forward to visiting a Trader Joe’s store. The scale is human, even if I’m visiting Little Italy!

Grocery shopping is a basic need. As a child, I loved visiting the small Parisian specialty grocery stores on the street where my grandmother lived. None was huge; each was filled with surprises and delights – I can still remember smelling ripe peaches and being astonished at the many different kinds of pears. All seemed very real and human.

Trader Joe’s has that quality. Every product offered has meaning. The overall selection and presentation reflect intelligence and respect for me, the shopper. It’s a store where how a product tastes still matters, where what goes into a product has been considered, and where product information is readily available [see http://www.traderjoes.com/products.asp] as many friends with specific dietary needs frequently tell me. Unlike traditional grocery stores, it also exudes warmth.

Trader Joe’s may offer customers less choice. However, in terms of ease of choosing and relevance of choice, it is definitely where less choice is more. No wonder it’s one of the hottest retailers in the US, with sales of approximately $8 billion and on par with Whole Foods. Wouldn’t you want to go where choosing is easy?

related posts:

• the fundamentals of choice
• fan of joe’s
• six best practices in retail

Several weeks ago Bloomberg BusinessWeek published an article about Steve Jobs entitled, The Last Pitchman.  It documented Jobs’ seemingly inexplicable ability to sell practically anything, as evidenced by his glorious pitch for the iPhone 4, a “new” product which the news media had already gotten hold of and detailed weeks before.  I tore the pages out of the magazine as is my habit with content which proffer good fodder for blogposts.

Although the article was fascinating, I struggled with how to make sense of it — until last Sunday when I read a New York Times interview with Aaron Levie, co-founder and CEO of Box.net.  Levie used to do magic shows as a teen, and he says some of his most important leadership lessons come from the hobby:

“…it’s all about getting in front of people and telling a story, something that people buy into that is hopefully entertaining.  It’s all about capturing people’s imaginations and getting them excited about what’s possible.”

I realized that’s exactly what makes Jobs such an effective pitchman – magic.   Let me break this down a little.

Levie says magicians “tell a story.”  Jobs creates his own narrative.

Jobs’ story usually involves naming an enemy and fighting fiercely against it.  The BusinessWeek article reports that Jobs describes the iPad as “a weapon of freedom – ‘freedom from programs that steal your private data…freedom from programs that trash your battery…Freedom from porn.’”

By using an enemy to create a dramatic storyline in which the Apple product is the hero, Jobs ignites his audiences’ passions.  They’re rapt as they await the climax of the tale – the unveiling of the product or a specific feature – in the same way that great magicians get their audiences on the edges of their seats in anticipation of the “ta da!” moment.

Levie says magicians “capture people’s imaginations.”  Jobs inspires people with the promise of what’s possible.

At the risk of overstating things, it seems Jobs gives people hope.  With the deft of a skilled evangelist, he paints a picture of an almost utopian-like world his products can produce.  In the Times article Kelly O’Keefe, executive director of the Virginia Commonwealth University Brandcenter, comments, “We need something to believe in.  People believe in Apple.  They believe in Jobs.”

Levie says a magician is “entertaining” and “gets [people] excited.”  Jobs uses theater to entertain and excite.

Jobs’ version of theater isn’t flashy like what you’d experience at, say, a Sony presentation.  But it’s no less a staged spectacle.  Just like a magician who can use a simple hand gesture to spark a collective gasp among his audience, Jobs’ uses simple techniques like dramatic lighting, provocative language, and Spartan slides to create excitement.

None of the above is intended to diminish the value of what Jobs is selling – Apple’s products are truly remarkable, so he certainly has great raw material.  But his selling technique is what really fascinates me – and challenges me to think differently about the way I sell.

Whether it’s selling my ideas when speaking to an audience, selling an engagement when meeting with a prospect, or selling a point of view when making a recommendation to a client, I find so much of what I do is sales. Maybe you can relate?

I think using the approach of a magician might help us sell better – we will be able to do what the BusinessWeek piece says is Jobs’ forte:  channeling desire.

I’ve finally gotten around to reading “The Opposite of Fate:  A Book of Musings,” a book released quite awhile ago by Amy Tan, the author of best-selling novels like The Joy Luck Club and The Kitchen God’s Wife.  Like all of her other writings, this book has been a delight to devour.  Not only has it entertained me and helped me understand Tan (and therefore myself), but also it has inspired me.  Tan includes many insights about story-telling and communication in general which I believe can be applied to developing brand strategies.

One of such “musings” is “Five Writing Tips” — an edited version of a speech given as a commencement address at Simmons College, in Boston, in 2003.  Although her remarks were intended to inspire a new generation to write and think differently, I found they also provide helpful guidelines for creating brand strategy.

Tan herself explains broader application of the principles she relayed:   “So what can I as a writer tell you today that might be useful as you leave this period of your life and enter the next?…Five writing tips, which you may find useful in areas other than writing, perhaps even in thinking about life, how you might conduct it in a manner that is interesting and worthwhile.” (emphasis mine)

So with many thanks to Tan, here are excerpts from her speech and my interpretation of how they relate to developing brand strategy (in case you’re wondering what I mean by “brand strategy,” please refer to this post):

1.     Avoid clichés.

Tan:  They are all around us, and they are anathema to original thought.  Take these, all having to do with an acceptance of fate:  ”That’s how it was meant to be.” Or “That’s our lot in life.”…And how about: “Some things were just meant to be,” and “If it’s not one thing, it’s another,” a cliché brilliantly parodied by Gilda Radner.

When you are told, “It was meant to be,” ask, “Who meant it?  What does it really mean?”…When you are told, “Shit happens,” remember that plenty of other things happen as well, such as generosity, forgiveness, ambiguity, and uncertainty…If you hear overused expressions on the news, stop to think whether they are really meaningful.

The spectrum of meaning is endless and fascinating and filled with humanity.

Me:  Brand strategy should be authentic and meaningful. The job of a brand strategist is to uncover the authentic essence of what is being sold and to articulate that in a way that ignites with provocative insight the customer experience and communication development processes.

Brand strategies which rely on over-used phrases like “Brand X is the preferred choice of…,” or “Brand Y is the most innovative…”, are usually the product of a lazy strategist.  It signals he or she hasn’t done the hard work of digging for what the true meaning of the brand is and/or figuring out how to bring it to life.

Cliché-like tendencies are particularly common when describing brand attributes or benefits.  Relying on industry standards or company conventions can blind people to the real roles certain attributes or benefits play, or the way they have evolved over time, or how they might be framed, shaped, or exploited.  A strategist should always be questioning, challenging, pushing the bounds of conventional thought.

2.    Avoid generalizations.

Tan:  As a fiction writer, I distrust absolute truths, homilies, bromides, sound bites, and also shorthand advice of the sort I’m giving.  I like specifics…Intelligent readers will demand that you not…resolve situations with “Good always conquers evil,” “Might is always right,” and so forth.

And while such resolutions are common in murder mysteries and action stories, they are feeble in literary fiction, which is supposed to reflect subtle truths about the world. Better to be subtle rather than overbearing, subversive rather than didactic.

Me:  Brand strategy should be specific and nuanced. It should include a focused and precise articulation of what the brand stands for and the specific position the brand occupies in the competitive landscape.

It should also detail rich insights about the target customer(s).  Referring to “soccer moms” or “Gen Y” does little to help the strategy’s users understand the real needs and drivers of the target.

Again, this requires diligence and discipline.  But uncovering and capturing the “subtle truths” is often what makes the difference between a brand which is merely one of many options and one which truly resonates.

3.    Find your own voice

Tan:  …Your own voice is one that seeks a personal truth, one that only you can obtain.  That truth comes from your own experiences, your own observations, and when you find it, if it really is true and specific to you, you may be surprised that others find it to be true as well.  In searching for your own voice, be aware of the difference between emulation and imitation, inspiration and intimidation.

Me:  Brand strategy should capture the unique voice of the brand. The strategy shouldn’t simply explain the brand’s attributes and competitive positioning – it should also reveal the brand personality and character.  For example, when I worked on Sony Electronics, we had crafted the core belief of the brand:  We create technologies that inspire people to dream and find joy. The unique personality and character attributes we codified included:  young at heart; optimistic; believe anything is possible.

Also in some ways, the brand strategy is a story.  The brand is the hero, competitors or customer needs are the villains, and the dimensions outlined in the strategy create the story arc.  As such, the narrative should convey the brand voice.

4.    Show compassion

Tan:…Practice imagining yourself living the life of someone whose situation differs entirely from yours – living in another country, having another religion – and the more deeply you can do so, the more you can become that character as you write.  You cannot help being compassionate.

Me:  Brand strategy should reveal true empathy for the target customers. The more intimately you can relate to the way they think, feel, live, shop, the more capable you are of creating a strategy which will fuels a strong brand:customer connection.  It’s not enough to be able to describe customers – the goal should be to can see through their eyes the world, other people, the competitive landscape, and your brand and product.

Empathic and ethnographic research methods are great tools to achieve this level of intimacy. But above all, as Amy Tan explains, “Imagination brings you close to compassion.”

5.    Ask the important questions.

Tan:  What makes a story worthwhile is the question or questions it poses…We need personal answers, all the stories, as many as we can get.  But to find them, you first must ask the questions.  You need to ask yourself:  What is important?  What is at stake?  In knowing what questions you are asking, you also know your individual voice, your own morality.

Me:  Brand strategy should raise and answer the important questions. Developing a brand strategy isn’t about putting words on a page – it’s a process of discovery and enlightment about what matters.

Brand strategists should ask:  Why does this brand exist?  What is important about the target customer?  Why does this category matter?  What if this product didn’t exist, what would be lost?  And then the strategy should show how the brand answers these questions in a way no other brand can.

Tan concludes her writing tips by explaining their importance.  She says, “Your thoughts, your evolving answers to the important questions, are what will give you interesting lives, make you interesting people capable of changing the world.” (emphasis mine)

I believe the same can be said about a well-crafted brand strategy.  Developing and executing a deeply insightful brand strategy is what will make yours an interesting brand capable of changing the world.

related posts:

• brand platforms are like political ones
• strategic brand platforms
• brand documentaries

Today I’d like to do a little experiment.  I have an idea for a new brand tool but my thoughts aren’t fully fleshed out.  So I thought I’d use this blogpost as a way of reaching out to like-minded folks who might be interested in refining and fleshing out the idea.  The following post outlines my idea as well as questions and points for feedback.  I hope you will be eager to participate and actually read this as invitation to collaborate on something that could be quite exciting.

Background. I recently attended the Planning-ness conference.  It was a conference for account planners (for those of you who aren’t familiar with what an account planner is:  at advertising agencies, the role of the strategist is usually called an account planner.)  Although I am no longer an account planner and haven’t attended a planning conference in ages, the speaker line-up and workshop format were a draw for me.  The conference was expertly curated by DDB’s Mark Lewis and turned out to be a fantastic opportunity to engage with brand strategists about big ideas.

One of the common themes that arose from the different sessions I attended was the importance of narrative – that is, using story as a method of communicating persuasively.  For example, one of the speakers was a documentary film maker.  As he talked about his process of creating a documentary, it was clear that although the purpose of documentaries is to expose a truth, there is a storyline that is woven through the film that makes the point and enables the film maker to accomplish his objective.

Likewise, we heard speakers from Organizing for America, Obama’s grassroots field organization.  They emphasized the importance of a personal story as a way of connecting with others and enrolling them your movement.

One of the highlights of the conference was the presentation by Rob White and Adrian Ho of Zeus Jones, a new kind of agency based in Minneapolis.  I’ve been a fan of ZJ ever since I found about them earlier this year.  They seem to share a similar approach to me as far as brand-building is concerned.  They call it “modern branding” and they contrast it to “classic branding.”

ZJ explains that, in the past, brand-building was about communicating ideas.  But in the current environment of so much fragmentation in media and competition in products and services, brand-building is about beliefs. Brands are not about a promise, but what a company believes.  And everything that a company does to build its brand is about proving how strong its beliefs are.

They talked about how modern branding is such a sea change from the traditional branding approach that the traditional tools and constructs that brand-builders have used in the past are no longer relevant.  One example is the brand pyramid, which is a strategic framework that is often used to flesh out and dimensionalize the values and attributes of the brand.

Rob and Adrian suggested the pyramid is no longer applicable in modern branding because the brand is less about the attributes that you profess and more about the user experiences that you create.  They asked us to form break-out groups to develop new tools for brand-building in this modern branding world.

The Idea. The idea I have arose from the break-out group that I participated in:  We talked about how to replace the brand pyramid.  Clearly there is still a need to articulate what the brand stands for and how it is positioned, but a static diagram on paper is equally clearly not the answer today.  Because we had spent the prior day and a half talking about the importance of narrative, our group immediately gravitated toward the use of stories as a way of expressing the brand.  Ultimately we came upon the idea of developing a brand documentary.

The break-out group didn’t get to flesh out the idea much beyond a few initial thoughts, but I’m really interested in the potential of a brand documentary as a new brand tool and so I want to outline it further and get your feedback.

A brand documentary would be a film to communicate the brand strategic platform. The objective would be to tell the truth about the brand the way most documentaries seek to tell the truth about a particular issue.  Importantly the documentary would not be your typical brand manifesto video or some other type of inspirational treatment.  It would be truth-oriented and fact-based, as opposed to vision-oriented or an aspirational promise.

This idea leverages something Jonathan Salem Baskin the author of Branding Only Works on Cattle and the Dim Bulb blog talked about recently.  That is, in brand-building today, the approach shouldn’t be to promise something and then hope that you can deliver on it.  Rather, it should be to deliver an extraordinary experience and then narrate what happened.  In that way, a brand documentary would seek to narrate the examples of how the brand is actually experienced.

For example, the film might include clips of actual customers experiencing the brand and show the reactions and interactions that the customers have with the brand.  It also might include excerpts from interviews with people who work for the company who have either done themselves or have witnessed their co-workers or strategic business partners doing something that exemplifies the brand.  Or perhaps the film would chart the history of a particular project or company initiative that advanced the brand platform.  It also might include news items or coverage in the media that discuss what the brand is doing.

All of these clips would be assembled into a documentary-style film that then would be used as a tool by all brand stakeholders to use to enhance their brand understanding.  It would probably be approximately 10-15 minutes so that it is accessible and digestible to all who would use it.  The role of the tool would be similar to the brand pyramids of the past, but the depth and richness and most importantly the reality of the brand is what would be captured in a brand documentary.

Feedback. So the feedback I’m looking for is:

1.    What do you think of this idea generally? Is this on the right track?  Do you think that this is an improvement to a current approach (whether that be brand pyramid or some other tool that is used to enhance brand understanding among stakeholders)?

2.    Do you have any ideas to improve the idea or to build it out further to make it an even stronger tool?

3.    Also what other types of content should be included in a brand documentary?

4.    Finally, if we were to create one of these brand documentaries as a test, what resources would you recommend — specifically:

• people who would be interested in working on this type of project (film makers, editors, writers, etc.)
• examples of documentaries or films that would inform our understanding of how to do this kind of project well
• potential clients who would be interested in experimenting with this brand tool for mutual benefit in a shared cost relationship

I really hope that you will take the time to give input on this.  I open this up as an invitation for anyone who wants to participate and I am sure that the idea will only get stronger because of it.   Thanks — and I’m listening!